


Rainfall Redshift

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Series: Rose-tinted [2]
Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Supernatural Elements, it's raining of course, mentions of injury, mortal threat, speculation about death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-05 01:18:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16357868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: Spirits try to eat Jinyoung's soul way too often for him to get fooled by a boy who pretends that isn't what he's after.





	Rainfall Redshift

Jinyoung's patience is growing thin. It is nighttime, and ordinarily he wouldn't venture out so late because of the hazards of the hour, but Jihoon had been adamant about eating together that evening so Jinyoung could give his professional opinion on whether or not a waiterat a restraurant that had taken too much of his money was flirting with him. The chill in the wind has him wishing that he had chosen a thicker jacket when he left the house a few hours ago. 

The air is damp with rain that had fallen earlier in the day and the rain that was sure to fall sooner or later. With the imminent rainfall and the brisk breeze that catches Jinyoung's ears and the nape of his neck he wants to pull up his hood. He can't do that though. If Jinyoung wears his hood he won't be able to hear very well and being unable to hear has proven dangerous before. If Jinyoung lifts his hood now, he won't be able to hear whatever is following him. 

Jinyoung takes a deep breath. Often when he is followed it is by something that has nothing better to do than to latch onto his energy and be a bit nosy. Dozens of times his presence has piqued the curiosity of something sentient enough to ask questions or play pranks. On a handful of occasions he has caught the interest of something far less benign and that is hardly ever an easy situation to slip out of. 

Without any actual contact, Jinyoung doesn't know how to categorise his new friend. 

It is better for Jinyoung not to find out what sort of friend his follower is. He keeps looking ahead and tries not to flinch too obviously when he dips down yet another side street and hears the squelching footsteps of his pursuer taking the same route. 

If Jinyoung stays calm he might be able to get home without any interruptions. He only tends to be bothered by pursuers if he shows signs of noticing they exist at all. It is only the aggressive ones that aren't deterred by his nonchalance and all the protections he has stuffed into every nook and cranny of his home. 

The pace behind him isn't slow and lumbering but it isn't particularly fast. The footsteps behind Jinyoung sound quick but the gap between them isn't decreasing. If Jinyoung has to guess, something young is scurrying after him just for the sake of it. It might even be something weak which doesn't have a choice about being dragged along by Jinyoung. His journey home doesn't get any more pleasant with the prospect that he has kidnapped a spirit in its infancy opposed to attracted a stalker because complacency is always dangerous. 

As long as Jinyoung gets home without changing the status quo he will find help and he won't have to worry so much. But it is difficult to remain rational when the light around Jinyoung is fading and he is on his own and all he can think about is the time something followed him at a pace like this and swallowed a part of his soul. 

Jinyoung wipes at the sweat beading at his temples and prays his pursuer isn't taking notice of how his hands are trembling and his footsteps stutter uncertainly. He wouldn’t need to worry about seeming nervous but it is becoming more and more apparent that he is lost. He knows he isn’t being sensible by continuing on the same path but if he turns around he risks bumping right into the thing following him. He stops and hold his breath until he hears the following footsteps stop. Jinyoung moves slowly because sudden movements are always more suspicious and withdraws his phone from his pocket to use the map to work out how to get home. The idea is the smartest of the thoughts Jinyoung has had since he realised he was being followed, except his hands are shaking too much for him to unlock his phone and it slips right out of his fingers and clatters noisily to the ground. 

Something scampers right up to Jinyoung and the chill in the air has permeated his chest enough that his whole body freezes. His eyes are wide open as the thing crouches down at Jinyoung’s ankles and pops back up into his field of vision. 

“Here you go!”

It is a boy. Jinyoung has already forgotten himself. It looks like a thin boy around Jinyoung’s own age with full lips and curious eyes and Jinyoung is struggling to remind himself that the situation is getting too dangerous too quickly. 

The boy holds Jinyoung’s phone up higher and Jinyoung apologises and accepts it. Jinyoung pulls his phone to his chest quickly and wonders whether him constantly avoiding the boy’s gaze is too obvious. 

“Are you alright?” the boy asks. Jinyoung is not alright. It is nighttime and he is alone aside from this inquisitive spirit. Not satisfied with Jinyoung's lack of response, the boy steps closer and looks up at Jinyoung. His eyes are slightly mismatched and Jinyoung averts his own eyes. He knows it is already too late if he has noticed but the spirit is undeterred. “You shouldn't be scared. I am scared too.”

Jinyoung frowns. “Why are you scared?” 

The boy drops onto his heels and casts his gaze to the rain-soaked asphalt. “I might be lost. I followed because… I thought you could help me get home but I was too nervous to ask.”

Jinyoung throws caution to the wind and sighs. The spirit is good at amassing sympathy and Jinyoung almost feels swayed into helping him, but he has heard of traps like this before. It makes sense for Jinyoung, alone and timid, to be easy prey that doesn't need to be extricated from a pack. If Jinyoung was in this position he would absolutely target prey like himself, but knowing that he is being targeted irritates Jinyoung. Rejecting the softer coercion of the spirit will only make it more forceful in its ministrations and Jinyoung may well meet a more gruesome end than if he had happily skipped along to be eaten. 

“I'm afraid that I won't be able to help you,” Jinyoung says. The words are more of a mumble than anything else but the spirit understands and pouts sadly. 

“Sorry for bothering you.”

The spirit excuses himself and turns to amble uncertainly back in the direction they had just come from. Jinyoung wonders how weak this spirit must be to give up so easily. 

The boy clutches at the shoulder strap of his bag and the line of his back is rigid. He is upset. Even though Jinyoung suspects that this weak spirit has powerful friends which could assist in eviscerating him, he feels sorry for the boy. Jinyoung had made a mistake when he engaged with the boy and he only worsened things when he allowed their gazes to meet. 

Against his better judgement, Jinyoung calls out to the boy. “Where do you need to go?”

The boy takes a few more steps before he halts and looks over his shoulder at Jinyoung. He points to himself and as soon as Jinyoung nods he hurries back to stand too close to Jinyoung. Jinyoung already knows that he will live to regret meeting the boy's eyes in the first place so it doesn't matter that he allows himself to look this time too. His eyes and nose are glowing pink and even in the deepening darkness Jinyoung can see the shine of tears tracking down the boy's cheeks. 

“Will you really help me?”

Jinyoung nods. His kindness might be repaid by only having another fraction of his soul devoured. 

The boy sniffs loudly and smiles. His hands reaching for Jinyoung's seem to move in slow motion and Jinyoung can feel the soporific force of this spirit touching him long before he feels the ice of the boy's hands. This is what scares Jinyoung the most. This boy is a powerful spirit yet he is employing deception to lure Jinyoung further from safety. Jinyoung is scared and the boy’s cold hands are wrapped loosely around Jinyoung's and even if the boy releases him, Jinyoung knows that he won't leave. 

“I am not sure where I am,” the boy says as though he must do anything at this point to add lustre to the illusion. “I am not from here and I think I took the wrong bus.” His thumb swipes a glacial trail over the back of Jinyoung's hand and across the edge of Jinyoung's phone in their joined hands and he adds, “my phone died.”

“I will try to help you if I can,” Jinyoung says, “but I am a bit lost too.” 

The boy smiles and his glittering eyes scrunch pleasantly. “I was worried that was the case. What will we do if we are both lost?”

Jinyoung doesn't think it particularly matters if he is about to be killed, so he shrugs and the boy laughs. 

The pressure of the spirit's non-corporeal presence is cool, and Jinyoung has been feeling the chill for a while but compared to the autumnal air around them it is tropical in the warmth of its caress against him. Jinyoung has never before encountered a spirit that feels like this. He is far more used to the hairs on the back of his neck standing erect and his skin erupting in anxious goosebumps. This is pleasant and despite the danger Jinyoung would be comfortable standing hand in hand with this spirit for the rest of his life (however short a period that turns out to be). Jinyoung is happy enough like this but he wants to make the tears that dried onto the boy's cheeks a distant memory that he won't even recall in his last moments. 

“I can use Google maps on my phone or something,” Jinyoung says. 

“That's a great idea!”

“Could I have my hands back please?”

The boy looks abashed but it is nicer that the embarrassed hue is rinsing away the upset that was radiating from his skin. Jinyoung hopes that maybe the spirit really is lost and might repay any assistance by eating Jinyoung quickly instead of doing it in a more painful way. He is still zooming out from the industrial estate right next to them on the map his phone spits out at him (a perfectly secluded place for a spirit to very kindly devour Jinyoung whole and not piece by agonised piece) when the spirit speaks. 

“My name is Lee Daehwi, by the way.” Jinyoung glances up from his phone and the spirit offers a wobbly smile. Jinyoung supposes the name is as good as any and tries not to dwell on how likely it is that the name was stolen from the spirit's last victim. The spirit adds, “I am really grateful for your help…”

There is no doubt about what the inquisitive tone means and Jinyoung can't even blame the unctuous eyes of this spirit called Daehwi as he looks back down at his phone and replies, “it is nice to meet you, Daehwi, my name is Bae Jinyoung.”

“Bae Jinyoung,” Daehwi repeats dreamily. His theory about this spirit assuming the identities of his victims seems about right as the boy keeps saying Jinyoung's name and smiling. The spirit looks cowed when he notices Jinyoung staring at him and says, “Sorry. It just feels important.”

“Important?” Jinyoung asks in spite of his wariness of the answer. 

The spirit nods his head vigorously. “I can sort of feel the energies of words and names. Yours is a good one.”

Jinyoung can see spirits, is harassed by them day after day, and thinks Daehwi is strange. For a brief moment he thinks he must have forgotten what Daehwi is and how it wouldn't be unusual for a spirit to feel aural energies and perhaps even sustain himself on them. For an unfortunately longer moment Jinyoung forgets how important survival is, and says, “You can have my name if you'd like.”

Daehwi’s eyes widen solemnly before they crinkle with a smile. “Thank you. I will be sure to treasure your name.”

Jinyoung gives a small smile of his own. “If you don't mind a long walk I can get us to what looks like a main road with a miniature bus terminal and I can help you to find the right bus.”

“How long?”

“About half an hour?” Jinyoung's voice makes his words sound like his own estimate rather than the vocalisation of the approximation given by the app on his phone. Daehwi’s smile grows. Jinyoung wonders how truthful the claim about sensing the energies of words is, but he is too scared to ask about the energy he projects. 

“That isn't long at all!” Daehwi asserts. “I might even get home in time for my curfew!”

Another question Jinyoung doesn't ask is how Daehwi could jump to that conclusion from such insufficient information, but Daehwi seems as certain as he is cognizant of it. 

They set off following the directions Jinyoung's phone spits out, only they get off to a false start. When Jinyoung apologises for leading them in the wrong direction Daehwi laughs, warm and loud, links their arms together, and Jinyoung is glad he picked out a light jacket when he left the house earlier. 

Later on, when the clouds crack and the rain begins to seep out, it sounds heavier than it is. Jinyoung keeps his hood down so he can hear the dense weight of the rain spattering and spilling around them but he doesn't get as drenched as he thought he would. Daehwi presses close to Jinyoung regardless of how sheltered they are, but Jinyoung doesn't blame him. Daehwi isn't dressed for the weather and it seems more obvious that he isn't real when his clothes don't dampen beneath the precipitation. 

Jinyoung tries to avoid engaging with spirits at all. It is the best way to stay safe if he keeps to himself. Now that he isn't being pestered by a prankster or trying to escape something more sinister, Jinyoung is curious. He can appreciate that spirits exist for more than to simply bother him and attempt to part his body from his soul. Daehwi is cheerful and thanks Jinyoung multiple times for his help and he hasn't done anything too obviously covetous of his soul. 

It is silly, Jinyoung knows that, but he wants to know more about Daehwi. 

“How long have you been…” Jinyoung trails off because he realises that he doesn't know how to phrase his question. He can't ask how long Daehwi has been dead for because he might never have been alive. Jinyoung doesn't talk to spirits often so he doesn't know the etiquette around getting to know them. Daehwi looks expectantly up at Jinyoung so he finishes with a vague, “Here. How long have you been here?”

“What do you mean?” Daehwi asks. Jinyoung doesn't think that Daehwi is trying to trick him into saying something bad but he doesn't know his companion well enough to be sure. 

“You said that you weren't from here,” Jinyoung prompts. 

Daehwi looks thoughtful for a moment before deciding, “It hasn't been long. I am trying to be adventurous because I am away from my family and I am trying hard not to feel lonely. I have some friends but I don’t want to bother them with every little thing. It has been maybe two months?”

“You’re young,” Jinyoung muses. Daehwi laughs again. The sound alone shouldn’t pull Jinyoung even closer but there isn’t anything else he can think of which explains how he feels compelled to ensure Daehwi is safely against his side. 

“You can’t be much older than me.”

It depends on what terms but Jinyoung can’t find it in himself to disagree. “I guess.”

The rain falls harder but not on either of their shoulders.

“You’re like my friends,” Daehwi says. “They’re all older than me and baby me a lot.”

“They baby you a lot but you don’t want to bother them?” Jinyoung frowns. “Is that why you’re alone now?”

“I’m not alone, I’m with you.” There is a glint in Daehwi’s eyes and it is kind of cute but Jinyoung knows and sees deception. Things aren’t quite matching up and it is too easy for Daehwi to deflect with expressions like this. Daehwi’s shoulders drop after a moment and he averts his gaze until he fixes his face into something more prudent. “They’re busy a lot and I know that they go out of their way for me a lot. I just wanted to see a band and I know none of them are into that band so it would be a bother for them. And then I got lost.”

Without the charming bravado the story sounds sad. Daewhi sounds sad. He shouldn’t. Jinyoung peers down at the phone screen and decides they’re still going in the right direction even if the dark street is still devoid of people and properties. He keeps his eyes down when he says, “I don’t think they would mind. I think they would prefer you were safe. Anything could have happened to you.”

“Are you trying to make me feel guilty?” 

“No, I’m not. But if you need to go out at night I think they would like it if you had someone with you instead of you sneaking out behind their backs.”

“When did I say that?” Daehwi asks. He hadn’t said that he sneaked out but it is what Jinyoung inferred. Whether the story is true or not, Jinyoung doesn’t think any protective sort of friends would have let someone like Daehwi go out without questioning it. Then again Daehwi has decided they’re similar and nobody put up any fight to prevent him from going out to get eaten by someone like Daehwi. Jinyoung left home and his mum only asked him to text her updates. Which he hasn’t done yet. He quickly types out a message telling her Jihoon was asking after her and that he would be home within a couple of hours depending on buses. He thinks he should feel bad for lying like this but it is better than nothing. 

Jinyoung catches Daehwi’s eye when he looks up from his phone. Daehwi does a terrible impression of someone who wasn’t just looking but he still looks curious when he pretends he is looking freshly at Jinyoung. 

“Is sneaking out so bad?”

“It would make them worry more.”

“It sounds like you’re better off than me if you have so much freedom that you don’t need to sneak out.”

Jinyoung thinks he has too much freedom to be able to go out like this and realise that he won’t actually make it home like he promised his mum. The street is no different from before, soaked in the pouring rain and intermittent street lamps illuminating the bare nothingness, but the map on Jinyoung’s phone says there is a main road a few hundred yards ahead. Daehwi still hasn’t taken Jinyoung off course to somewhere he could get disemboweled. Perhaps Daehwi doesn’t quite realise it because the pouring of the rain must be masking the sound of the distant road. Jinyoung slows his pace and Daehwi glances up at him curiously. 

“What is it?”

Jinyoung breathes, wonders if maybe talking is enough for this spirit. “Nothing. I bet your friends are all worried about you. Or they will be when they find out what you did. Anything could have happened to you.”

“Anything could have happened to you too,” Daehwi retorts. “You can’t act like you’re so invincible when you’re out walking on your own.”

“To be fair my friend offered to call me a taxi but I said I would be fine with the bus. Not that I was able to find one.”

“That’s silly,” Daehwi says. Then, “I am glad though. I would be even more lost if you weren’t here.”

“Then it’s lucky that we’re both here.”

“Very lucky,” Daehwi agrees. 

They reach the road and Daehwi doesn’t look any less confused. He keeps looking up and down the street and casting his gaze over his shoulder even when they are walking towards more lights and actual people. 

“There should be some bus stops if we keep going this way. I think there are even shops and stuff if you need anything.”

“That’s good.”

It is good for someone like Jinyoung who hoped being amongst other humans is enough to save him. Less good for someone like Daehwi who might be deterred from feeding (or whatever it is he does with human souls) and Jinyoung even feels a bit bad for wanting to save his own life. 

Daehwi doesn’t say much like this, only clings to Jinyoung’s arm harder than necessary and keeps looking at him. Jinyoung would like to say he knows Daehwi is looking at him because his peripheral vision is that good except he actually keeps meeting Daehwi’s eyes because he is looking too. He’s curious to know what will happen now. He’s curious to know whether he should have let Daehwi eat him instead of leading him into a street where the rain has pushed people into doorways where they can still watch on. 

“Are you alright?” Jinyoung asks. Daehwi is entirely nonplussed by the question and takes a few beats too long before he laughs it off. 

“I’m fine. We're not so lost anymore.”

Jinyoung is still very lost and being able to pinpoint himself on a map doesn't really help when it has him placed so far from home. Besides, Daehwi doesn't sound fine and he doesn't sound glad that they are apparently less lost. Again he is back to looking over his shoulder and peering every which way. This isn't what Jinyoung would be doing if he was happy to be less lost (which he is, so he isn't suspiciously scanning his surroundings). 

“I don't think you are fine. I know when someone is lying to me.” It sounds braver than Jinyoung feels but he has nothing but bluster. 

“I think I can get home alright from here,” Daehwi says, tugging his arm away. 

“You said you weren't from around here.”

Daehwi says nothing and stands still beneath the rainfall. Jinyoung had almost been able to forget one of the things that initially made him pity Daehwi but a shine of sorrow is glinting at Jinyoung through the rain. He definitely is being lied to but he can't begin to work out what it is specifically. Daehwi might actually be a human and that just confuses things further. 

“You said you took a bus to get here. How will you get home?”

“Don't worry about it. I just remembered I have money for a taxi somewhere in my bag.”

It is a strange time to remember such a thing, on the cusp of civilisation and far too long after the topic was brought up to say Jinyoung had jogged his memory. 

“I will wait with you then.”

“Sorry, I only have enough to cover one fare.” Daehwi takes a step backwards and Jinyoung wonders if he is the soul devouring monster here. 

“I never said I wanted to share a taxi with you, I only said I would wait with you.”

“There's no need!” Daehwi says brightly. He takes another step back. “Get home safe, Jinyoung, it was nice to meet you.”

He takes off at a sprint leaving Jinyoung to get drenched alone with his rebuttal about Daehwi's phone dying to melt out of his mouth. Something feels off. It is Jinyoung's turn to look all around him though he doesn't know what he is looking for. 

The rain is heavier now, louder and harsher against his ears. It doesn't look any thicker but Jinyoung must blink the rivulets of rain out of his eyes as the water drenches his hair and trickles over his face. His jacket is already sodden and it had been bone dry before Daehwi left. And then he feels it, something that passes right through him at an achingly uncoordinated pace that clicks and cracks sonically static as it pastes his hairs down flat against his skin before it is gone and his body has erupted in gooseflesh. 

He should have been able to feel that something before now, or at least sense it in another way. He hasn't had something sneak up on him this well without it herding him away from people to try to rip out his innards. He should have been able to feel it or smell it or hear it but he hadn't and then he realises what direction he finally felt the thing moving in. Daehwi should have said something if he was going to ward away sound itself so effectively. 

Jinyoung doesn't think there is good energy in his name at all. 

The rain is stinging his eyes as he runs into it but there isn't much that he needs to look out for aside from Daehwi and whatever it is that followed him. 

There's a turn ahead and it is almost upon Jinyoung before he scrambles to take it, deciding that Daehwi doesn't want to be around people much less at home. The buildings appear to be industrial buildings which were abandoned midway through conversions to become commercial properties and this is far too appropriate a place to get eaten by a spirit. There'd be no disruptions. 

Jinyoung is tired and he can't see much and he is scared he made the wrong call. He can't let Daehwi's life, whatever form it takes, end here. So he yells. As loudly as he can, Jinyoung screams Daehwi's name out of his aching lungs and he hopes somehow he will be answered. Just not by a dense mass of darkness that barrels into him, much more coordinated than before, and knocks him clean off his feet. 

This is strange. Jinyoung doesn't think he has much going for him if he can't even sense a spirit before it has him pinned to the rain-soaked ground. Staring up at the mass of profound nothingness, Jinyoung has to wonder whether he was too late. The lack of anything, the lack existence before his face isn’t encouraging.

”Did you kill him?”

Jinyoung doesn’t get an answer of course, thankfully. He doesn't know what he would do if this thing spoke to him. Jinyoung has met spirits that don’t just use the names of their victims, like he thought Daehwi had done, but they use the faces of their victims and the voices of their victims and even the memories of whoever they had eaten to draw in others. Jinyoung feels a little foolish for managing to be drawn in without even tricks like that. And now this is it. 

The spirit belches into Jinyoung’s face, an acrid fug of nightmares sinking down upon him, and it occurs to him that even if Daehwi turned out to be a human he couldn’t leave life for something less than sweet. A body is a body and a soul is a soul regardless of who they belong to. Only, without even knowing what it is like to have either of these so close, Jinyoung refuses the notion that the thing, the spirit, the juddering mass of malcontent above him, won against Daehwi.  

A stranger knows true innocence. It is a lingering notion in the back of a person’s mind that comes to them even as they as being pushed against the ground and the back of their head feels grazed and raw with the sting of puddled asphalt causing further friction. The sense is stirred and it makes so much more sense now, why he was so easy to go along with Daehwi even rationalising consideration that doing so might leave him dead. 

“That’s rude. Even after scaring my friend you think you can keep being rude like this?”

A rattle as the spirit, corporeal enough to block the rain but not to much that Jinyoung doesn’t think he sees the stars falling as rain onto its back, dips closer to him. It doesn’t need to breathe but Jinyoung hears is inhale anyway, wheezing above him before it does the same as before. A decaying belch and there is no way that this is what Daehwi’s soul would feel like falling against him, not what Daehwi’s soul would sound like. 

It is enough that Jinyoung thinks he understands. The gaping, wheezing maw doesn’t close, and Jinyoung could easily reach inside and snatch out all the neutrality from inside it, create a monster even more impossible. Or he could tear the thing apart. 

Jinyoung decides to do just that. 

He punches his arms through the mouth, wincing at how easily it disintegrates and turns to tears and wisps around him and gutters flatulently. He waves his arms to make it dissipate further and can’t help but flinch away from the limp webs that drip onto him. His eyes are screwed shut and he is flailing with less direction and this is why he doesn’t even realise the ease with which the spirit becomes nothing at all. Not until the warmth of flesh is covering his fists. 

“Jinyoung.”

He opens his eyes and Daehwi is crouched above him, his hair clotting together damply across his forehead as he peers down with concern. 

“Are you a person? A live, real human?” Jinyoung asks. He doesn’t want to suddenly discover he had befriended the monster all along. Daehwi doesn’t look entirely like he understands though.

“Of course I am.”

“What was that?”

“It was a curse. It followed me.” Daehwi’s words are light but they shouldn’t be if he is saying this properly. Jinyoung sits up and all the darkness in the world swims before his eyes. Aside from Daehwi who he can locate easily by the sound of a sigh. “It was going to eat my friends so I had to find someone else.”

“You found me,” Jinyoung says slowly. “You followed me.”

“I did,” Daehwi agrees. He doesn’t look particularly sorry about that. “But I changed my mind. I tried to get away so that it wouldn’t think you were my friend and eat you too. And when I was hiding I heard you call me your friend.”

“Oh my gosh,” Jinyoung says. “Did I somehow give you a change of heart? Did I make you into a nice person?”

“I was already a nice person,” Daehwi grumbles. He’s still holding onto Jinyoung’s hand so no matter how annoyed he pretends to be his relief is tangible, a firmly soft warmth over Jinyoung’s knuckles. The warmth and care is coming from his eyes too and his is looking at Jinyoung closely. “What are you?”

It is a question Jinyoung has refrained from asking even if that is the very thing he wants to know. He can’t help but laugh after trapping the words behind his own teeth for so long. “I’m a person.”

“A real life human?” Ah. Jinyoung had in a roundabout way asked, he supposes. 

“Yeah. The same as you,” Jinyoung says. “Are we the same?”

“I’m not sure. You didn’t get eaten.”

“Neither did you,” Jinyoung points out. “We’re the same. And we should be going home.”

Daehwi helps Jinyoung to his feet and it seems sort of pointless and they’ve wasted enough time. They walk back to the main road again only this time the rain is drenching them both. 

The walk back is peaceful for one of them. Daehwi explains how the curse has been troubling him lately, even getting nighttime visits warning him that those closest to him wouldn’t be safe if he stayed near them. Jinyoung on the other hand can’t help looking around to ensure they aren’t being followed by anything that can sneak up as effectively as the spirit creature from just before. Nothing tries to get them again and Jinyoung supposes he is just being paranoid when he thinks the rainfall is masking something else. 

They’re at the bus stop where at least there is a shelter while they wait to see if Daehwi’s last bus will even come in accordance with the timetable when Jinyoung asks, “That was you earlier wasn’t it? The rain. Why didn’t you stop it again.”

Daehwi keeps looking down the street but the bus is nowhere in sight and the only headlights are from cars driving too fast down the rain-soaked road. He glances back up at Jinyoung and smiles. He says, “You were already wet.”

He’s not wrong but it doesn’t feel that great to know that he could have started drying off a bit earlier and Daehwi chose not to help that. But Daehwi did help somehow even if he hasn’t mentioned the fact that the power of (fledgling) friendship was apparently enough to tear apart a malevolent curse. 

The headlights of the bus are blinking from further along the road and Daehwi stands. He smiles up at Jinyoung. “I don’t meet people like you often. Like us.”

“Yeah, me too,” Jinyoung agrees. “By not often I mean never. Just in case you thought I had any friends who destroy cursed spirits or anything.”

“I didn’t think that. But it would be nice to have a friend who does that,” Daehwi says as he checks on how close the bus is. He decides he has enough time to say, “Can I give you my number because my phone is dead? Just in case one of us gets cursed again or anything.”

Jinyoung quickly shoves his phone at Daehwi and flags down the bus. Daehwi passes back Jinyoung’s phone before digging his bus pass out of his bag. 

“Text me, please.”

“I will,” Jinyoung says as Daehwi is stepping onto the bus. “Text me back.” Daehwi gets a window seat and waves at Jinyoung as the bus pulls away. He hasn’t said anything about replying to the text but just to be on the safe side Jinyoung sends the first text and hopes Daehwi quickly gets home and charges his phone. 

Waiting at the shelter for his own bus, Jinyoung catches sight of something small, glowing lightly at his feet. He would almost mistake it for a tiny fox if it wasn’t emitting a pale blue light. It shivers pathetically and Jinyoung is surprised that its fur is far softer than it looks.

“Do I need to try to see you home too?”

The small spirit doesn’t reply, of course, and Jinyoung hopes he’ll be forgiven. He’s tired and wet and he promises to find its home tomorrow after they’ve both warmed up at home. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i had the idea for this about a year ago but i only managed to write this recently (as a distraction from how hard writing things I am supposed to be writing is) and it is kind of whatever but it's something i guess. if you want to talk i am usually ranting about writing on [twitter](https://twitter.com/SEpupppupp)


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